The Overlord of Blood and Iron (WN)

“That’s not it?”

“...”

“I heard that you earn millions with the business you have. You have a high amount of sales and you’re even earning from the treatment for balding. You’re acting like you would do anything for money.”

Brynhildr’s words were filled with thorns.

“When will you be satisfied? I heard that you’re also completely exempt from taxes in the Korean government. Are you trying to surpass the Rothschild family?”

This wasn’t a baseless rumor.

In fact, it was true that Kang Chul-In was earning an enormous amount of money through Galaxy Corporation.

But Brynhildr didn’t know that that money was exchanged into gold and that gold was being used to run the Valhalla Kingdom. None of it went to Kang Chul-In.

And that wasn’t all.

Remembering his difficult old days, Kang Chul-In gave benefits in his company like an 8-hour work day, off days, financial help, and many other benefits. He didn’t have as much money as was thought by the public.

“Where are you going to...”

“Enough.”

Kang Chul-In cut Brynhildr off.

“Get your nose out of how I spend my money.”

“No!”

Brynhildr shook his head.

“I...”

“And what about you?”

“...!”

“What do you fight for?”

He asked the question because it was ridiculous that he was treated as an avaricious person.

“In your eyes, is Albrecht Vilhelm such a good Lord? Enough to give your loyalty to?”

“...”

“To be frank, with your skill, it’s you who picks who to serve, not the other way around.”

That was true.

Brynhildr was powerful enough to make a Lord into an Overlord.

“Is that what you’re curious about, Supreme King of the West, Kang Chul-In?”

“To an extent. Rather than a hypocrite like Vilhelm, someone like me would...”

“No.”

Brynhildr was firm.

“Whatever happens, I won’t serve you, Kang Chul-In.”

“I wasn’t saying that you...”

“I… fight to stop you.”

“...”

Kang Chul-In’s face crumpled when he heard Brynhildr’s words.

What kind of bullshit is that!?

He had never heard of something so ridiculous his entire life.

To stop him?

Was that the only reason why Brynhildr had always stuck to him even before he regressed?

It wasn’t his loyalty to Albrecht Vilhelm?

“You’re exploding, Kang Chul-In.”

Brynhildr continued to speak regardless of how dumbfounded Kang Chul-In was.

“For your greed and desire. You can’t even take care of those around you, so what are you trying to do?”

“...?”

“My goal is to stop you from exploding, and it doesn’t matter who I ally myself with as long as they can stop you.”

It was an amusing reason.

Was that shit reason why they had fought all this time?

“Whew.”

Kang Chul-In sighed.

“I’m hearing all kinds of weird things.”

“Sure, think what you want. Stopping you from exploding...”

“Fuck off since I don’t want to listen anymore.”

Kang Chul-In coldly turned away from Brynhildr. He didn’t want to speak with him anymore.

“Sheesh… so you think that Vilhelm is a wise and generous king for trying to stop me?”

He didn’t know why Brynhildr was talking about such bullshit when they hadn’t even met before. Brynhildr didn’t even know about what a sly bastard like Vilhelm might do.

Since when did people bring up whether you took care of the people around you?

When cavemen were around?

Or when animals used to speak?

Technically, that was what he did when he ignored his mother Park Soon-Ja and fought in wars, but that was all in the past.

It was funny how Brynhildr was babbling on about stopping him amongst other things.

We should take a family vacation when I return.

There was maybe about 1% of truth in what Brynhildr said.

After all, it was true that he had been so busy that they hadn’t had any proper family functions.

“Anyways, I’ll go my way, so you go off to fight with my military to accomplish your goals. Oh, I’ll pay back the blood of my soldiers that you spill by hundreds, no, thousands of times later in the future.”

“...”

“The day you bring the fish.”

That was the end.

Kang Chul-In moved, leaving Brynhildr standing there, and Brynhildr just silently watched Kang Chul-In.

It was a strange and coincidental meeting.

***

Two days later.

For the first time in his life, Kang Chul-In entered Dorian’s territory --- he hadn’t visited in his old life, either.

“Welcome, Kang Chul-In!”

Dorian Explorer greeted Kang Chul-In gladly.

“...I have no words.”

But Kang Chul-In didn’t look happy.

It was because Dorian’s territory, Mistarik, was probably the worst off in all of Pangaea.

He would’ve believed it if he heard this was a rural village and not a territory.

“Is this really it?”

“Yeah.”

“This is your territory?”

“What about it?”

“You...”

Kang Chul-In eyed Dorian with dissatisfaction.

“...Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Were you actually a village leader instead of a Lord?”

“...!”

“Or the village mayor?”

“...”

“How were you able to become an Overlord with this hiding place for bandits?”

It was quite mysterious.

There was a minimum size requirement for the territory to earn Lord Points, but it seemed like there were barely about 5,000 people here.

“Hey, you!”

It was then...

“Are you daring enough to ignore our king!?”

A fairy with wings that were about 20 centimeters long shook its finger at Kang Chul-In with a raised voice.

“Kneel and apologize this... Kyak~!”

The fairy flew far away. It was because Kang Chul-In flicked the fairy away with his finger.

“What’s with this fly?”

Kang Chul-In spoke in an annoyed voice.

“Are you raising moths these days?”

“It’s not a moth!”

“...?”

“Kang Chul-In, you bastard! You blew Pixie away!”

“Oh?”

It seemed like that fairy was Dorian’s secretary, Pixie.

“...S-Sorry.”

Kang Chul-In quickly apologized, which was unlike himself.

Even if it was a territory that wasn’t that great, it was still Dorian’s territory, and the moth was the second-in-power of this place. It was good manners to apologize in situations like this.

In other words, if Kang Chul-In and Dorian weren’t that close, this could’ve been a reason to cross swords with each other.

“I really didn’t know.”

“Be careful!”

“Okay.”

“Well, fine. Since you didn’t know. Hehe~!”

Dorian was really easygoing.

“Hey, you rude bastard!”

But Pixie wasn’t.

***

After that slight incident, Kang Chul-In immediately started a strategy meeting. It was only him and Dorian, but it was still a meeting.

“Alright, so this is the start.”

Kang Chul-In pointed at a point on the map.

“From here, to there, there, there, there, there, and there. These 7 territories are the bases of the Baldur region. They’re also Rothchild’s neighbors. The Lords of these 3 territories...”

“Assassinate them?”

“Correct.”

“I have a question!”

“Go ahead.”

“What if the Lords die? Won’t someone try to take their place? For example...”

“Rothschild?”

“Yeah. If we assassinate them, Rothschild might be...”

“Grateful? Since he can swallow the territories up during all the confusion?”

“Mhm, isn’t this just spoon feeding him?”

“No.”

“No?”

“The targets are… here, here, and here.”

Kang Chul-In pointed at each of the three points.

They were the furthest from Rothschild’s territory.

“Mm? They’re all places that Rothschild can’t move quickly to.”

“Right. We’re only going to kill these three.”

“What about the rest?”

“They’ll probably draw a line between Rothschild and themselves.”

“Huh? Why?”

“I’m planning on threatening them.”

“Huk! A-Are you going to...?”

“Yeah, these three here are the people who are friendly with Rothschild. What if they die, and I announce that everyone who allies themself with Rothschild will die?”

“Isolation!”

“And during that time, Vito Clemenza’s army will come from the west, and three days later, a second group will attack the Baldur region from the south.”

“T-This!”

Shiver!

Dorian felt like he had been splashed with cold water.

‘Kang Chul-In, this scary bastard!’

This was an extremely scary plan.

Kang Chul-In was trying to use Vito Clemenza’s army to attack the Baldur region and the territories of the Lords at the same time.

This was a three-way attack.

If this plan began, the Baldur region would be in a mess, and the third-party would be gone.

And with this, Rothschild would be isolated, so it was hitting two birds with one stone.

“I’ll ask again.”

Kang Chul-In opened his mouth.

“No matter what kind of reason we have for this, it’ll be a repetition of murders over and over again. There might even be a great war involving the entire continent. Can you do it?”

“Of course.”

Dorian replied.

“To be honest, I don’t want to go to war… but it doesn’t change the fact that Vilhelm and Rothschild massacre people. I know that you’re not that different from them... but I also know that you're a gentleman compared to them. I’m saying you’re the lesser evil. Your citizens even call you a heavenly king.”

It was long, but Dorian had a single main point.

Seoul.

Dorian remembered the dungeon gate incident that was the combined work of Rothschild and Vilhelm.

It was the massacre of civilians.

Furthermore, civilians in Seoul didn’t have anything to do with the politics of Pangaea.

They were crushed just by the fact that they were users of the Galaxy Corporation.

As someone from the British Special Forces, SAS, this was extremely horrifying.

‘So that was it.’

Kang Chul-In realized why he and Dorian had split up in the past.

Massacre.

Embarrassingly, Kang Chul-In had carried out meaningless massacres multiple times. It was a gruesome past that he couldn’t understand when he thought about it now.

“Kang Chul-In.”

Dorian spoke towards Kang Chul-In.

“Promise me this one thing.”

“What?”

“I understand war. There’s tons of other passionate Lords like you.”

“So?”

“I hope you stop at war.”

“So that means...”

“Yes.”

Dorian nodded.

“I won’t say to protect innocent civilians. However, massacring people is something that should never happen.”

“Of course.”

“Can you promise me that?”

“You’re not a girl. Stop saying useless things and let’s get to work.”

Kang Chul-In frowned.

Massacre?

It was enough being called a fanatic for dominating. He wasn’t crazy to do something like that and fail in this life, too.

“Okay, good.”

Dorain understood what Kang Chul-In was saying and turned his head towards the map.

This was the moment that Dorian Explorer completely took Kang Chul-In’s side.